There are many known items of media today which are associated with a value such as a pre-payment value or face value. Such items of media such as prepayment cards, scratch cards, currency checks, currency notes, vouchers or the like, are typically presented by a user at a redeeming node whereby goods or services or money or credit are exchanged for the item. Often, the fact that the value in the item has been exhausted by such an exchange must be identified. This can be achieved by an authorized user at the redemption node keeping possession of the presented item, but on occasion this can be inconvenient. The item must often therefore be marked in some way so that, if returned to an initial user, that user cannot subsequently re-present the item to attempt to receive the value associated with the item again.
For example, today, many item processing devices, including check processing modules in an automated teller machine (ATM), usually offer an option to endorse a check on the rear during an acceptance process. Some offer the ability to put a stamp on the front or rear of the check (endorsement, bank stamp or void stamp). The endorsement mechanisms used often take the form of printing via a printer or roll-on stamper in the ATM with some form of inking method, such as a rubber ink pad stamper, thermal print, or inkjet printer, or the like.
These printers have issues with ink running out, ink drying out, misfires, printer hardware failures and faint and/or smeared print. Furthermore, the orientation of the check which is presented must be fixed so that the printer prints on a correct side of the check and fully prints a pre-determined message. Customers have long accepted these limitations as a printer was the only method available to get required information onto the face or rear of the check to meet paper-based check processing rules. Vendors have had to provide one or multiple printers in check processing devices along with their associated high cost and failure rates.
With the advent of Check 21 in the US, it is now possible to fully process a check based upon an image of a check captured at an ATM, branch or other point of first presentation. A remaining requirement for marking the physical check has been to render it non-negotiable after initial presentation in order to prevent the check being retrieved and re-presented for deposit or cashing a second or more time. This has been prone to the problems mentioned above.
A still further problem occurs when an automated process is used to handle deposited items and allocated a value to a user or user account if the deposited item is valid. Printed endorsements can be overlooked and can be tampered with to fool a machine into allowing a value associated with re-presented items to be re-used.